He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into an imperial superpower. Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Kleopatra VII Philopator Lagid.